


And Now I'm Shining Bright

by aintweproudriff



Series: Royalty/Magic AU [2]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sarah gets a job working for Kath's family, smalls/sniper if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-23 07:32:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13185300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: Sarah is part of the poorer class in the water kingdom. Katherine is from a rich family in the air kingdom. When Sarah gets an opportunity to work for Katherine's father, the two of them meet and unexpectedly hit it off.Takes place after the kingdom borders have been dissolved, but before Spot, Race, Albert, and Elmer are kings.(a birthday gift for @heck_the_peck)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heck_the_peck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heck_the_peck/gifts).



> @heck_the_peck you're lucky i like talking to you or else I wouldn't have thrown off my fic-writing schedule to write you a present.  
> (also smalls is from the earth kingdom, sniper is from air, not sure if that's mentioned or not)

The Jacobs family was not rich. That much was pretty obvious, based on the food they ate, the clothes they wore, and their house’s physical distance from King Edward’s castle. Sarah and David knew this fact very well, and Les would begin to understand it better as he was eventually taken out of school to find work. He had a few years to go, though: Sarah had started working at twelve years old. It used to bother her that she wasn’t allowed to study her water magic or math or reading more, but she learned to keep quiet about it. It was more important to put food on the table than know how to do complex equations or move water through the ground. No, of course it wasn’t fair, but very few things were. She put as much effort as she could into the little jobs she found, hoping that one day, her hard work might pay off. 

And that payoff was the letter she held in her hand. Sarah read it over and over, trying to decipher some hint of a joke or falseness.

“David,” she whispered, breathless. 

“What’s that?” her brother stood up from where he sat at the table, leaving his book wide open. She didn’t respond, only passed him the piece of paper. When he finished reading, he looked back up at her. Her heart pounded, and she felt sure David could hear it. 

“A job. A real one, in the air kingdom,” she nodded, her face lighting up. 

“Oh my god. How - how did you?”

“You remember that job I worked a while ago where I took care of those kids for a few nights?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Apparently, the parents were so impressed with me that when they heard about their friend’s family - their RICH friend’s family - needing a new worker, they suggested me.”

David hugged her tightly. “Good job,” he whispered. 

“It pays enough that I can send about half of it to you four, and keep a little less than half of it for myself, and you’re still getting more than what I could normally give you.”

“Well done,” he squeezed her hand. “I’m really, really proud of you.”

-

Sarah was lucky enough that each of her family members told her that before she left for the air kingdom. Saying goodbye had been hard, but she knew that it would be worth it. And now she stood at the door of a house nearly as big as the castle looming in the distance. Sarah reached up and knocked on the titanic wooden door. She stepped back and looked around, until it swung open. 

“Hello?” said a short woman, looking up at Sarah’s awed face. 

“Uh, yeah, hi. My name’s Sarah Jacobs, I’m-”

“-The new hire?”

Sarah nodded. 

“Yeah, figures,” she grumbled, stepping aside to let Sarah in. Sarah grabbed her bag full of clothes and entered. “We’ll see how long you last,” the lady laughed cruelly, but Sarah barely heard her. She was to busy admiring her surroundings. The high ceilings, statues, and paintings were like nothing she’d ever seen. 

“It’s gorgeous,” she turned around, gaping at everything around her. 

“Yeah, you’ll have plenty of time to look at it all when you’re scrubbing,” the lady walked to a flight of stairs, and began to walk up. Sarah followed, noting that they were made of marble. “I’ll take you to your room, then you’ll meet the people who can tell you what to do.”

The marble stairs ended, and the lady led her down a wide hallway to a skinny wooden staircase. Then, at the top, a narrow hallway. The lady pointed to a small room. 

“In there,” she said. “The empty bed is yours.”

“Thank you, um, I never got your-” Sarah peered into the room, then turned around. The lady was nowhere to be seen. “-name.” 

Shrugging, she stepped inside. A girl in a brown dress and a stained apron sat on a bed, lacing up her boots. 

“Hi,” Sarah said, setting her bag on the only bare bed. “I’m Sarah, I’m new. I’m, uh, from the water kingdom.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re the new Annie, huh?” the girl stood up, pushing a blonde ponytail over her shoulder. Seeing Sarah’s confused look, she explained. “Annie,” she pointed at the bed, “the old worker.”

“Oh yeah. Guess I am.”

“I’m Smalls. My family’s from the earth kingdom, but I’ve been here long enough that I’m practically a citizen,” she stuck her hand out, and Sarah shook it. “This bed is Sniper’s, you’ll meet her soon.”

Sarah nodded, unpacking her bag. “So, what kind of work am I doing here, exactly?”

Smalls laughed, as if it were supposed to be obvious. “Your job is to take care of Mr. Pulitzer’s room. Clean it, make the bed, all that. You’ll also work in his study, tidy that up. Oh, and his bathroom.”

“Okay,” Sarah laid a blanket on her bed. “That doesn’t sound too awful.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Smalls grinned, sitting back down. “He’s very par-tic-u-lar. Likes everythin’ done a certain way. That’s why no one keeps your job for long. Nobody does it to his standards. And if he don’t fire you, the princess will.”

“A princess?” Sarah nearly dropped the pillow she had pulled out of her bag.

“Well, no,” Smalls admitted. “Not really. She’s Pulitzer’s daughter. She’s a lot like him, really. She insists on how things oughta be done. Her name’s Katherine, and she’s fired most of the people working in her room. We think she gets a kick out of it.”

“Oh. And who works in her room?”

Smalls tutted. “You do.”

“Oh.”

-

Smalls hadn’t been kidding about Mr. Pulitzer’s tastes. Her first day working for him, she returned to the tiny room and fell face first onto her bed. 

“Hard day?” Sniper laughed at her. Sarah had met Sniper the night before, when they had eaten dinner, and still hadn’t made up her mind on whether or not she liked her. She thought she did, but then she said something like that, something unintentionally rude, and Sarah didn’t like her very much anymore. 

“Yes,” Sarah rolled onto her back and covered her face with her hands. 

“How bad did he chew you out?” Smalls leaned forward. 

“His toothbrush,” Sarah sighed, “was on the wrong side of the sink. Apparently, the toothbrush and toothpaste go on opposite sides of the sink. And in his study, oh my god,” she sat up. “I didn’t alphabetize the books when I picked them up from the floor and put them on the shelf.”

Smalls and Sniper seemed to think that was hilarious. 

“And the princess?” Sniper asked. 

“Not quite as bad, actually,” Sarah pulled her hair loose and ran a hand through it. Sniper and Smalls looked at each other as if that hadn’t been the answer they expected. “Maybe not the nicest person, but then again it is my job for her to boss me around. And at least she told me where things go.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sarah nodded. “Like, she had me put away some dresses, and she told me to make sure the closet was still organized by color. And after, she let me sit for a while.”

“Are you sure you had the right princess?” Sniper joked. 

Sarah frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She hates people being in her room any longer than they have to,” Smalls said, shaking her head. “And she’s never told people how to do somethin’, only to do it. Wh-when you sat in her room, did you two talk?”

“A little, yeah.”

“About what?” Sniper was suddenly very interested. 

“She wanted to know about the water kingdom. She’s never been outside of the air kingdom,” Sarah remembered the conversation. “So I told her about my life, and about my family. Oh, and she was so sweet when she told me that she liked the way I did my hair.”

Smalls started laughing again, and the sound bounced off the walls. 

“What’d you say back? What’d you say?” Sniper asked. 

“I said that that was a very nice thing to say,” Sarah smiled, not understanding how this was funny, “especially considering how she and her dresses and her home are all so pretty.”

“Oh my god,” Smalls gasped. “She was flirtin’ with you. She’s never been that nice to anyone.”

“And you flirted back,” Sniper added. 

“She - I - did what?”

Sniper nodded. 

“I didn’t mean to do that! I mean, she is really pretty. And she was nice,” Sarah conceded, “but I didn’t mean to - to flirt with her!” 

Smalls shook her head and couldn’t even lean back all the way before the bells above her bed and Sniper’s bed rang. 

“That’s our call,” Sniper said. “They need us to clean somethin’.”

“Betcha somebody spilled somethin’,” Smalls followed her out of the room. 

Sarah stayed where she was, falling back on her bed. One thought passed through her mind as she buried her head under a pillow: “what did I do?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to wrap this up in two chapters but. I guess that's not happening.

“Excuse me? Miss Pulitzer?” Sarah knocked on Katherine’s door. 

“Come in!” Katherine called, and Sarah opened the door and stepped in. “Oh, hi, Sarah,” her voice was light. Sarah went to open the windows and let some fresh air in the room.

“What do you need done today, Miss Pulitzer?” Sarah asked. 

“Call me Katherine, Sarah, okay?”

Sarah swallowed. She didn’t want to give katherine the idea that she wanted to flirt or even get too close. But at the same time, she needed this job. And that meant sucking up her pride and going with the flow. “Okay, Miss Katherine, what do you need done today?”

Katherine gave her an odd look, and Sarah smiled sweetly. It was a compromise she would just have to live with. 

“The, uh, bathroom,” Katherine said, pointing. Sarah looked up from making the bed to see where the bathroom was. “It’s a mess.” Katherine paused, then added: “Please.”  
Sarah patted the covers and stood up straight. 

“Of course,” she smiled and walked over to Katherine’s bathroom. As she began to remove the things from the countertop, she heard Katherine begin pacing around her bedroom. Sarah drew the dirty moisture off the counter, and then spread a thin layer of water droplets on it. She began scrubbing, and then heard Katherine’s voice behind her. 

“Wow,” she said, her smile audible. “Water magic in action.”

“Heh,” Sarah laughed dryly. “It’s useful for cleaning, Miss Katherine.”

“You know they’re saying that each prince can do all four kinds of magic?” Katherine sat down on her bed. Sarah tried not to cringe at the rumples she would make in the newly taut sheets.

“I have heard that,” Sarah scrubbed. “And at this point, I would be inclined to believe anything anyone told me about those four. Someone could tell me that one of them is pregnant and I would ask when the due date was.”

“Oh my god,” Katherine laughed. Sarah turned around to see, and wasn’t disappointed. Her hand was over her mouth and her eyes were lit up and for some reason, Sarah wanted to pause that exact moment and see it again and again for a long time. She forced herself to turn away, back to her work. 

“Have you ever met them, Miss Katherine?” she asked, trying to keep small talk going. “Any of the royals?”

“I met Prince Anthony once,” Katherine said. 

“And what was he like?”

“Funny,” Katherine laughed. “A little strange, if I’m totally honest.”

Sarah chuckled. “Isn’t it like, very illegal to say that?”

“Oh, I hope not,” Katherine replied as Sarah tried to get out a particularly nasty stain. “Because I told him that I thought so.”

Sarah gasped and turned around. “And what did he say?”

“He laughed, and told me I was rude,” Katherine responded, all but giggling.

Sarah tutted, rolling her eyes. 

“I think he was sick of being respected, almost. Because he invited me to ask him if I ever needed anything. So I think he found the rudeness to be a, uh, pleasant change.”

“I guess all four of them must have been sick of being respected,” Sarah stood up, putting each of the objects back on the counter, “or they wouldn’t have snuck out in the first place. And then, well, the borders wouldn’t be dissolved like they are now, would they?” She paused. “And then I never would have gotten this job.”

“I can understand that, actually,” Katherine stood up, walking around her room. “Everything with me is always ‘Miss Pulitzer’ or handed to me without me even needing to do anything. For once, I would like to do something myself. I’d like to be called ‘Katherine,’ I think. Or maybe ‘Kathy,’ or even ‘Kitty,’” Katherine sat down on a plush green armchair. “I’ve never been ‘Kitty’.”

“That’s funny,” Sarah rolled her eyes in the mirror, so that Katherine couldn’t see her. “I don’t think I’ve ever been ‘Miss Jacobs’. Or even ‘Miss Sarah.’ Respect is not something I’ve ever gotten a lot of. I’ve sure given a lot though.” She stepped back to look at what she’d done. “Is this okay?” she asked Katherine. 

The other girl stepped into the bathroom that was most definitely to big for just one person. 

“Actually, could you just move-” Katherine stopped when she saw Sarah shift, ready to rearrange something. “Actually, you know what? It’s perfect. Thank you, uh, Miss Jacobs.”

Sarah bit back a smile. 

Katherine made her face expressionless. “You’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, Katherine,” Sarah nodded politely, and now it was Katherine’s turn to try and fail to keep her smile down.

Before Sarah could open the door to leave, Katherine stopped her. “Miss Jacobs!” 

Sarah turned around at Katherine’s voice. 

“Will you come back after your chores are done? To, um, talk to me a while longer?” Her face was hopeful, but her eyes were wide in fear. 

“Of course,” Sarah replied, smiling reassuringly. Even if it hadn’t been a part of her job requirements to say yes, she likely would have wanted to return.

-

“I should have you fired!” Mr. Pulitzer shouted at her. “This kind of laziness in cleaning will not be tolerated.” He looked at Sarah, then turned away. “I would have fired you already,” he muttered, “were it not for my daughter putting in a good word for you. And because of that recommendation from her,” he turned on his heel to look at her, “you can stay another day.”

Sarah’s brain short circuited. After over three hours of cleaning his room, this was how she was treated. She might have lost this job, if it weren’t for Katherine. And she might have quit right there and then, if it hadn’t been for Katherine.

“What do you say for my generosity?” he asked. 

“Thanks - thankyou very much, uh, sir,” she stuttered. “And I’m apologize, I mean I am very sorry, deeply sorry, for the, um, mistakes I made today.”

“Huh,” Mr. Pulitzer looked unimpressed. “One more mistake and you will be fired. Dismissed.”

“Thank you, Mr Pulitzer, sir,” Sarah breathed, begging herself to regain her wits.   
Apparently, her wits were not in the mood to cooperate with her, because instead of going back to her room to cool off, she ended up at Katherine’s door. Her hand knocked of its own accord. 

“Come in,” Katherine’s voice said absently.

She entered slowly. 

“Miss Jacobs, hello,” Katherine closed the book she had been reading. 

“Just Sarah is fine, Kath.”

“Oh, so am I Kath now?” Katherine smiled. “I like that. I really like that a lot.”

Sarah smiled back, but weakly. Her brain had difficulty forming the next words she said. 

“May I sit?” she pointed at Katherine’s monstrous armchair. 

“Of course,” Katherine had barely gotten the words out before Sarah crumbled into the fine fabric. “You’re here as a friend, now, Sarah. Not a worker.”

Sarah breathed heavily. “But this morning I was a worker?”

“Well, yes,” Katherine said, her voice tinged with something like shame. She climbed off her bed and began walking towards Sarah. “But now, a friend. Do you want anything? Can I get you something?”

Sarah looked up at her. “A glass of water, if you don’t mind?” she asked, and closed her eyes. 

Katherine nodded, walking swiftly to the bathroom to grab one for each of them. She came back, a glass full of water in each hand. When she gave Sarah one, she looked like she was going to linger next to Sarah’s chair, but in the last second, she walked instead to the wide, pale green couch. “What’s wrong, Sarah?”

Sarah blinked. Katherine’s face was genuinely concerned. “Your father hates me.”

“Oh,” Katherine nodded. “Yeah, he hates a lot of people. Don’t take it too seriously.”

Sarah couldn’t help the layer of dry sarcasm that flowed out of her mouth. “Oh, good.”

“No, I’m serious,” Katherine leaned forward. “For a long time, I was convinced he hated even me.”

Sarah looked up, concerned. “I’m sorry,” she met Katherine’s eyes. Katherine looked away suddenly. 

“No, it’s fine.” Katherine pursed her lips. “I’m just glad he finally hired someone like you.”

“What do you mean?” Sarah sat up and bent forward. 

“The last person working in my room was a fifty year old woman,” Katherine sat back, rolling her eyes at the memory. “Before that, a forty year old man.” She shuddered. “No one our age, no one even close. Hell, the last time I spoke to someone our age must have been-” she counted on her fingers, thinking back. Both her and her father had a flair for the dramatic, Sarah noticed. “-Prince Anthony. A year ago.”

“That’s why you fired all of the people who worked here?”

“Maybe,” Katherine said, as if she were considering it. 

“You wanted a friend.”

Katherine sighed. “Yeah, I did.”

“And now you’ve got one,” Sarah smiled, and the way Katherine’s face lit up was enough to persuade her to be friends with Katherine forever. 

-

That night, Sarah relayed all the information that she had learned to Smalls and Sniper.

“I still think she was flirting with you,” Sniper told Sarah seriously. Smalls laughed when Sarah didn’t deny it. 

For hours, Sarah tried to fall asleep, attempting to banish every hough of what it must have been like to feel like you didn’t have a friend in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sarah, honey, that's really gay of you.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> awww its over. I thought about making this longer and making it some big slow burn but... nah.

Days wore on in the Pulitzer mansion. Sarah woke up when the sun was barely beginning to peek over the mountains. She visited Katherine’s room first, ready to do the work that needed to be done. Often, Katherine wasn’t even there. She’d be off working with one of the many tutors her father hired, or out enjoying the sun from atop her horse. So Sarah would make her bed, clean the closet and the bathroom, and be in Mr. Pulitzer’s study by noon.   
Multiple times, Pulitzer had screamed at Sarah about the way she cleaned - or rather failed to clean to his standards - but he always dismissed her from the room politely at the end of it. Every time, just as she thought he was going to follow through on his perpetual threat of firing her, he seemed to hear something. He would pause, shake his head, and wave his hand to tell her to leave his room. Whatever it was, she was grateful for it. 

In the afternoon, Katherine would always be back in her room. Sarah didn’t want to say that Katherine was waiting for her, but the plate of snacks that found its way to Katherine’s table each day made it hard to argue otherwise. Especially when Sarah was trying to argue against Smalls and Sniper. 

“Sarah,” Katherine stood up from the couch one day, blinking at the sunlight that hit her face, “I know you did it this morning, but I spilled a bunch of stuff in my bathroom this morning. Can you-?”

Sarah wanted to argue. She had only just sat down on the couch next to Katherine, just picked up a cookie, and only just gotten off of work. Wasn’t she supposed to be a worker in the mornings and a friend in the afternoon? But Katherine looked at her, and her eyes almost begged. So Sarah stood. 

“Yes, of course,” she said, as if she’d been manually programmed to do so. 

Katherine smiled, her brown eyes up to something suspicious. She showed Sarah the mess. Soap had spilled all over the floor. 

“Okay,” Sarah smiled. “Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll get this cleaned up right away.” She pushed bitter thoughts to the back of her mind. 

“No!” Katherine grabbed Sarah’s arm, squeezing hard. “I want to clean it. I spilled it, so I think I should deal with it.”

“So why didn’t you do it already?” Sarah leaned against the doorframe. “Why ask me?” 

“I,” Katherine looked down. “I wasn’t quite sure how to do it.”

Sarah laughed. “You don’t know how to clean?”

“I’ve just never had to!” Katherine put her hands up, defending herself. 

Sarah bit the inside of her cheek to keep another laugh from escaping. “Okay. Alright, I’ll show you what to do. Grab a rag.”

Katherine looked around, lost.

“You don’t know your way around your own room. Great,” she rolled her eyes. “They’re over that way,” Sarah pointed. “In that cabinet.”

The other girl stepped gingerly over the puddle of soap. She opened the door to the cabinet and pulled out a rag. 

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Sarah nodded. “Get me one too.”

Katherine threw her one. 

“Okay, so you just,” Sarah knelt down, resting on her knees. “I can’t believe you didn’t know how to do this,” she wiped up a big chunk of soap. Katherine did the same from the opposite side. The two of them worked their way to the middle, their hands inching closer to each other. When Sarah had wiped up the last of the suds, she raised her head.   
And there was Katherine’s face, the only thing that she could see. Until, that was, Sarah closed her eyes and allowed herself to sink into the kiss and into Katherine. The soap made everything small strongly of jasmine. Sarah could tell, because she gasped for breath when Katherine’s lips met hers.   
All of a sudden, Sarah pushed herself backwards. 

“I can’t. You’re my friend, and you’re - oh my god, you’re my boss.”

“So quit,” Katherine’s face and tone were matter-of-fact. 

“I can’t just quit this job. I’m sending this money to my family. This, this is going to keep my little brother in school.” The floor felt hard and cold against the skin of Sarah’s palm, and it contrasted with her red, hot face. 

“We can take care of it,” Katherine leaned forward. “Take care of them. The money, the school, anything. We can do more than enough. They’d be okay. And besides, you’re seventeen. You shouldn’t have to be working to support your family; that isn’t fair to you.”

“But what do you think is gonna happen when - if it doesn’t work out?” Sarah backed away again. 

“Sarah. I,” Katherine’s face dropped. “I’m not going to let that happen. And if it did, I still wouldn’t cut off a whole family and let them starve,” she shook her head. “And I’d get you a new job. Or you’d get yourself a job and I’d put in a good word. Some place where people respect you and - and pay you twice as much.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“I think I’d do just about anything for you.”

Sarah scoffed. 

“No, really!” Katherine laughed. “I just dumped out this whole bottle of shampoo and then cleaned for you. Is that what love is?”

Sarah shut her eyes, laughing silently. “You have a lot to learn, but I think that’s basically it, yeah.”

“You’ll teach me what I don’t know yet?”

Sarah shook her head, smiling. “And what? Live here?”

“Yes,” Katherine clasped Sarah’s hands. “There’s plenty of nice rooms here. Nice, empty rooms, just down the hallway from my room. I want to keep seeing you everyday, but as a friend. Or maybe-”

“A girlfriend?”

“Is that a yes?” Katherine’s wide eyes were hopeful. 

“It’s a yes.” Sarah pulled herself back to Katherine; with her hands on Katherine’s back, she kissed her again, long and soft. 

“Or, y’know,” Katherine broke the kiss off. “You could always just move into my room.”

Sarah pulled Katherine up off of the floor. “Yeah, I bet your father would love that. Come on,” she rolled her eyes. “I wanna go resign. And then I need to tell Smalls and Sniper that they were right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love these girls

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


End file.
